Sometimes a pipe is just a pipe.
Or is it? Poetry is notorious for saying one thing and meaning another, or for seeming to be direct, but hiding a metaphor under the bed. And how about a poem written by a woman but spoken as a man about what he saw and what he imagined happening in his neighbor's abode?
In "There's been a Death, in the Opposite House," it can be hard to differentiate between appearances and reality, between metaphor and truth. Good thing Shmoop's here to have your back.
Questions About Appearances
- How much do you trust this narrator to be reliable—to tell the actual truth?
- On the surface, this is a poem about watching a house after a death. What else, if anything, is going on under the surface?
- What is the true nature of this town's "intuition"?
Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.
Everything in this poem is just as it seems from the outside.
The entire emotional drama of this death happens off stage, so to speak.